LIFE BEING A MUMMY & AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN

It is true that when you have children you give yourself completely over to them. But why do you have to let yourself completely go…… The answer is you don’t!! Obviously you don’t have the time you had to go shopping and take hours on your makeup but you can be a mum and still look great. This should be for yourself and no one else! It’s hard work being a mum and you should make sure you make time for you and making yourself feel good.

I was so uninterested in clothes when I was pregnant with Charlie. That’s all I wanted to wear was big jumpers and leggings and hardly ever put makeup on my face! So when I had Charlie I think I was craving to feel good about myself again.

So this post is about me sharing with you all my favourite buys recently that have made me feel great when I wear them. Simple, easy to wear clothes that look great.

Something I missed so much when I was pregnant was wearing jeans!! I’m such a jean person. I found these great jeans in Topshop and I’ve been living in them. They are high wasted and really stretchy material, great for making your belly look a bit flatter and so comfy to wear.

Light weight baggy tshirts are my new love. They look great but you don’t feel self-conscious in them at all because they hide everything.

I’ve never been a trainer lover but I bought these white Nikes recently and haven fallen in love. They are SOOO comfortable and a great thing for mums to throw on in the morning when you rushing out the door. I think the clean white colour makes them easy to match any outfit.

A key necklace can instantly make you feel nice. Adding a bit of jewellery to an outfit just brightens it up an makes you feel like you’ve made a bit of an effort.

The perfect Cardigan! have worn this River Island Cardigan most days since I bought it. It’s light weight fabric makes it not too hot but still keeps you warm in the mornings. There’s nothing worse than getting hot and flustered when your trying to sort the kids out!! It works with so many outfits an makes me feel great when I wear it.

Having another Jean in a different colour and a few different tops you can mix and match and always look great.

MAKEUP //

Us mums know that finding time for a full face of makeup is impossible with little ones around. I have 5 key items that I wear everyday for a really light easy look. It takes me no more that 5 minutes to do.

1||Foundation- I used to use DIOR but I’m now using LOREAL True Match, it’s a great light look that’s so easy to put on.

2|| Mascara- Rimmel, THE COLOASSAL. This is such a great Mascara. It has a curved edge on the brush that rally helps give more of a lift and curve to your eyelashes.

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3||Bronzer- I use this Dior Bronzer. It gives a great natural glow and doesn’t make you look orange!!

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4|| Eye liner – Maybelline eye liner pot lasting drama in brown. One quick line across the top of the lid can make your eyes stand out but it gives a really natural look.

5|| lipstick – Mac ‘myth’ . I love this lipstick. It’s such a great shade for the day. A really sift look.

I hope this post has given you some inspo and if you have any questions please comment.

I get a lot of questions on we’re I get Charlie’s clothes from so I thought I’d do a post on Charlie Boy’s wardrobe and where I go to shop. I have a few shops that I always shop in and they are such good value for money! I never see the point in spending hundreds of Pounds on baby outfits when they grow out of them so quick. I never really spend more than about £20.00 on an item.

My first favourite shop is ZARA, I literally could spend hours in this shop buying everything! They have the best range of clothes, there leggings are always around £10.00 or less and the cute little jumpers are from £10.00 too so you can go and spend a little and get some really cute outfits. The MINI range they have is unisex and the pieces are just divine. The quality is always fab, and after washing they always look and feel the same. Here is the link to their website and some pictures of Frankie in their outfits – everything in these pictures is from ZARA

My next go to shop is Baby GAP. The clothes are so cheap great quality and all just too gorgeous. No piece is more than around £25.00. Charlie looks so cute in all his gap clothes. They always have great discounts if you sign up to there mailing list, sometimes 40%!!

The leggings in the last two shots bring me onto my next favourite shop. DUDESNDOLLS offer the cutest range of baby and toddler clothes. The leggings are all such great designs. Charlie has the Fox and the triangle patterns and I put them on him all the time. The quality is brilliant and they fit great. They also do cute slogan tops, this shop really is a must for anyone little ones wardrobe. Check out there INSAGRAM too they always post fab pics of little people in there clothes, and may give you some inspo on outfit ideas.

For baby grows and vests my favourite place to go is NEXT. They have a great selection of clothes and you can’t not spend money when you go in there. You can get a pack of three baby grows for £16.00 all different patterns and they always fit perfectly. Baby grows are used loads and quality needs to be high so they last and a NEXT baby grow never fails!

Last but definitely not least is the beautiful onlinestore MOOBLESANDTOOBLES. There unique fun Irish designs make the best baby wear. The quality is excellent and I love dressing Charlie in their clothes. All their Items are professionally screen printed. Charlie’s wardrobe would lack a lot of fun without this shop. Check out their lovely INSTAGRAM page for lots of inspo.

Milestone Cards are such a great way to help you remember to take all those special pictures. I never did it with Frankie… Don’t get me wrong I took a million pictures but I think it’s so special knowing how old they were when you look back. I’ve found it so fun taking the pictures and making each one different. It’s also a great idea for when they turn one you can make a book on there first year with all the great pictures you’ve taken. All my pictures were taken on my iPhone, they take such great pics! Why not try it out and take some memorable pics of your little ones. I hope you liked looking at Charlie’s first 6 weeks ♡

This post has been on my mind to write everyday since I had little Charlie but adjusting to life with an extra little person has been full on! Amazing though!

I still can’t believe its all over and he’s here…..at home….and normal life is back.It only feels like yesterday we were in the conservatory having cuddles with our little boy ready to go into hospital.

I was absolutely terrified I’m not going to lie….. I did some research on birth trauma and I definitely think I experienced it with Frankie. If anyone wants any information on birth trauma i found this website amazing: www.birthtraumaassociation.org.uk

So heres how it all went down!!

When my mum dropped us off at hospital waving goodbye to Frankie was so emotional, it was the weirdest feeling leaving my little baby to go and have another baby…… it didn’t help that he just waved out the window and said bye bye. Emotional wreck wasn’t even the word.

We walked through the doors and instantly my heart started to beat out of my chest and reality seriously set in…. soon i will be in A LOT of pain.

I have to say that Saint Marys hospital in Manchester is truly amazing. The care and warmth that all the staff give mums is second to none. Since having Frankie they have changed the rules and you have your own room when you are being induced, it had a telly and a really comfortable seat in for Tom AND he could stay with me. I was over the moon as last time he had to keep going home and understandably I just wanted him there.

The nurse came in and put me on the heart beat monitor for twenty minutes to check Charlies heart beat was all good…… I was on it for 3 hours because he was having such a party in there he wouldn’t give a regular heart beat reading. You couldn’t blame the poor boy…my heart beat was probably going crazy!!

They finally gave me the first gel that you have to start helping the cervix dilate. The first one was fine and I did start having a few contractions about an hour later. I was trying to do everything possible to make everything move as quickly as possible, bouncing on the ball walking and drinking loads of water. After about twenty minutes on the ball I had to stop because it relieved all the pain from my back but made my legs feel like they were going to explode.

At about 11pm that night they gave me the second gel, I hadn’t dilated but my cervix had moved down. yaaaaaayyy we were on the move. Tom and I were very relaxed and started watching a bit of telly ( i felt so posh having my own room with a telex and a bathroom!!) when a nurse came in and told us that even when you get to 2 cm and your ready to have your waters broke the waiting list is up to 4 days!! I was nearly sick! how could they leave you there for 4 days having contractions when your ready. I really think telling people this is a bad idea because it stressed us out so much and we ended up going down within 24 hours so it was just all unnecessary.

Tom ended up going home to get a good night sleep as I was feeling ok. The minute he left I started getting such bad contractions and ended up having a bath at 3am in the morning! First time for everything! The hot water did ease the pain but it made my contractions a lot more clearer. I was having them every 1 minute 40 and they were staying for 50 seconds each time. I got back into bed, the pain was so horrendous up until about 6am when I finally gave in and had the injection to take away the pain. I was so annoyed, I really didn’t want it again…… with Frankie it made me feel so weird for ages after. That thought quickly disappeared as the pain almost instantly subsided and I managed to get some sleep till about 11am, no thanks to everyone coming in every two minutes asking me millions of questions.

I woke up to a lovely surprise, my little munchkin was standing at the bottom of my bed. He was in a crazy mood and nearly destroyed the whole room in 10 seconds flat so he didn’t stay long and was far too excited to give me any attention.

The nurse gave me a 3rd gel at 11 am on Wednesday morning and my god did it hurt, I had to have gas and air for that one! I am a woos at the best of times but the gels do make everything a lot more fragile. When she checked an hour later I was 2 cm dilated!! Woop Woop!!

So now they wait started,

It was such a beautiful day that day so we went walking loads, spend far too much money in the Marks and Spencer across the road, drank about two litters of water.

I hardly had that much pain all day. It was so frustrating that id given in and had the injection in the morning, I just felt id slowed everything down but apparently that isn’t true…….

At about 8 clock that night wed just put a film on the iPad ( Gone GIRL – don’t watch it, its terrible but the book is a must read) and the midwife came in and said I was next to go down! We were both so relived that we weren’t going to have to wait days! So I started to pack up my things and it started to dawn on me this is it, oh my god I’m about to go through the whole labour. I was terrified!

Early the next morning, 3.30am the midwife came in and said a bed was coming down for me now, we both sleepily got up and ready.

On the way to my room we went past the room that I’d had frank in and I started to feel a wave of emotions that I was actually about to meet Charlie…. I just had to get him out first! Hearing a women scream going into my room was no the best thing for my nerves.

So the bit I’d been dreading most of all was here……having my waters broke. The midwife we had was so lovely and had been working on the labour wards for over 20 years so I knew I was in good hands. Surprisingly my water broke within about a minute and it hardly hurt at all! This instantly relaxed me and put me in the calmest of moods. The drip went in my hand, it was so painful so the midwife had to take it out and put it in the other arm. I am not the best with needles at all, I was so upset that the first one hadn’t worked I had a mini melt down and got a bit overwhelmed. Tom was amazing he just kept joking with the midwife and making me laugh.

At about 11am I was put on the drip and after about 2 hours of regular contractions I had an epidural. I wasn’t hopeful at all about it working, my experience with Frankies was horrendous and just didn’t work no matter how much they’d give me. But this time it started to work straight away and I could hardly feel any pain. Tom was starving so I sent him for food, to my horror he walked in eating a subway! If I could’ve actually felt my legs I think I would’ve got out the bed and punched him!! We all need up in fits of laughter…. when I look back on the time we spent in the labour room it really was so relaxed and filled with laughter. the epidural working meant that we all just chatted about nonsense, I know every detail about my midwives sandwich shop she runs with her family!

By 5pm I’d dilated to 8cm and the pain was coming back quite strongly. I was given more of the epidural drug but it didn’t work at all! I was having gas an air but nothing was working. for about 2 hours I was in agony! I think I nearly broke Toms hand in the process. There must be a niche in the market for a glove a partner can wear whilst your in labour, every guys hand after having a baby must be broke.

I was pretty out of it when the anaesthetist came in, I opened my eyes and shouted its you! So embarrassing I though it was the anaesthetist that I’d had with Frankie but it wasn’t…. he said it was the nicest greeting he’d had walking into a room. I begged him to give me more and said what they had been giving me was not working at all. He said don’t worry Grace were going to get you comfortable…… and he definitely did. He gave me a much bigger dose and within half an hour my pain was almost completely gone!

At about 8 o clock I was fully dilated and had the earge to push…. It was so Wierd not having much pain! I was one of those women I scream at on ‘One Born every Minute’ that just sit there not making a noise!

So I stared pushing. Because i couldn’t feel any pain I was a lot more with it and it was so frustrating! I felt like we weren’t getting anywhere and that he was never going to come out! But after twenty minutes Charlie Joseph Mooney came into the world. I was so overcome with emotion when she handed him to me, I just couldn’t stop crying! the most amazing thing that we did was donate Charlie’s cord blood so that he could maybe save someone’s life with it one day. The only thing you have to do is have a blood test, fill in the form and instead of it being thrown away it goes to save someone’s life.

We had our tea and toast that you get after having a baby and it was THE most amazing tea and toast I have ever had. If id eaten it on a normal day I probably would’ve thought it was horrible but after 18 hours of child birth it was like eating gold dust!

We went up to the ward and Tom went home to get some sleep. I just sat there for what felt like minutes staring at him and then realised it was 2 in the morning! So I went to sleep next to my beautiful little baby boy feeling the proudest person in the world.

I know I said that I was going to feature this post tomorrow morning but I’ve been having some very strong pains today, and may be completely wrong but think Charlie could come later on tonight!! I’ve been getting pains only once a day for the past couple of weeks but today I’ve had quite a few so I’m just preparing myself for it to happen!!! Which I think I would be very happy about so I won’t have to be induced and nature can take it’s corse!! Wish me luck if it does happen tonight….I’m going need it!

So…… I am a huge lover of all things Monochrome!
Instagram has such an amazing showcase of beautiful monochrome nurseries and children’s rooms decor!

After receiving so many entry’s to my newborn baby gift guide competition on IG, I decided to do an extra feature of 10 stores that have THE best monochrome goodies for all little newborn babies….
So if you love monochrome and are looking for a gift or just want to buy your little bub something, There will definitely be an item if not everything on this list that you will have to buy!

MONOCHROME NEWBORN BABY GUIFT GUIDE

1) BOWSANDCANDY – Gift Bundle

This lovely little set of clothes would make the perfect little gift! I Love the clean fresh lines of this pattern and they would work well on a little girly or boy.

These fab Milestone cards are such a great gift! Every milestone your baby gets to you can have a little card to take a picture with to record all those special moments. A must website to Check out. Nisha the lovely owner has selected such beautiful products and created a fab modern little website.

Why wouldn’t anyone not want Such a beautiful unique gift than this. A stylish modern dream catcher to catch any bad dreams. Just beautiful!

Email – haloanddreamer@gmail.com

7) HELLO LITTLE BIRDIE – wall decor

This is one of my favourite stores on IG, their wall decors are just the most sweetest things! Perfect gift for any little baby’s nursery. Check out their fab Instagram for some great inspo pictures on decor. This store is a must to go and see.

Muslin Blankets are personally my favourite gift that anyone could give. They are so handy and useful. You can use them for swaddling your baby, lying your baby on and so much more. This company have the most gorgeous monochrome Muslins, so go check them out guys.

So there are all my MONOCHROME inspired Newborn baby gifts. I’m pretty sure if your looking for a gift you will 100% find something perfect from this list and my previous feature. Enjoy looking through all these wonderful shops, its amazing the talented community that I have come across all through Instagram.
Thank you everyone for entering and letting me feature your fab gifts!

This week I got my first baby gift through the post from my lovely cousin, and it got me thinking about all the lovely gifts you receive from family and friends when you have a baby.

I have been so much more relaxed this time around with buying loads of things for Charlie’ s arrival next week because I know how much I was lucky enough to be given with Frankie.

Two weeks before Frankie was born I woke up one morning In a massive panic that I didn’t have enough, so dragged my partner Tom out the door to go shopping and buy everything I thought I needed. Let’s just say after all the gifts we received Frankie was a very spoilt boy and had a better wardrobe than Victoria Beckham!!

When I received my first gift for Charlie it got me thinking of all the wonderful small independant shops I have found through Instagram!
It is truly amazing how Instagram has opened my eyes up to how many talented ladies are out there.

So today I am going to be featuring some beautiful stores all through the world of Instagram.
I posted a post on my page a couple of days ago calling all small shops to help me out and show me all their lovely products. I am truly overwhelmed by the amount of people that took the time to enter my competition and it really was THE hardest decision picking out the winners of the feature. I had over two hundred entrys and really would have loved to write about every store.

I was initially going to be featuring 5 baby boy gifts and five baby girl gifts but I started driving myself mad and couldn’t choose so I am now doing 7 of each.

Frankie is OBSESSED with Toy story at the moment so I’ve got him all set up the sofa, obviously with woody in hand, Toy story on and now I’m able to start going through all the amazing shops that entered!
I hope you all enjoy looking through all these gorgeous newborn gifts!

One last little feature I wanted to show you was this beautiful little ‘Welcome to the world box’ perfect for a little boy or girl! They are created by a great company called ‘The Bump Box’ and would truly make such a lovely gift.

So if you are buying a gift for a special little person that’s coming into the world soon I think you have plenty of choice too choose from all these AMAZING talented stores!! I truly believe that shopping with independant stores means you get that extra little love. Even the packaging always comes with such great care!
Go check out all these wonderful stores guys you will not be short for choice!!

I have a little extra feature I’m going to put up tomorrow too….. I had such amazing stores enter my competition so I have decided to do a MONOCHROME Newborn baby Guift guide and be featuring 10 stores tomorrow morning!! It’s such a lovely thing being able to write about and show others what beautiful things are out there..
Keep your eyes peeled for tomorrow’s goodies, they really are all soooooo FAB!

I hope you all enjoyed reading my little Newborn Gift guide today and I have given you some inspiration on what gifts you can buy.

This week seems to be flying by far too quick for my liking. Nesting is in full swing in our household and I have turned into a crazy clean freak! It’s so weird what happens to your mental state just before having a baby, everything has to be perfect. You find yourself cleaning out a cupboard that you don’t really need to sort out but it’s just bugging you. The whole bathroom is being bleached everyday and if anyone makes a cup of tea and doesn’t put the tea bag in the bin or wipe any mess up I turn into the HULK! Today I thought I would write about the little corner I have created in our room. Unfortunately we only have a two bedroom house so I haven’t been able to get a little nursery all decorated ready for his arrival. So I’ve had to work with what I’ve got. It really is the most amazing feeling setting everything up for your little baby and getting all the little details perfect and having such beautiful shops to buy all you need from. I wanted to go for a neutral simple theme that would corporate into our room seamlessly. I really was so pleased with the outcome, Even my partner Tom loves it and he normally looks at me like I’m mental when I get excited about decorating the house.

Today I wanted to feature all the wonderful shops that without, Charlie’s corner just wouldn’t look the same!

My First Feature is a beautiful little store called ‘MooblesandToobles’ created by a truly talented lady called Nadia.

She has a background in visual merchandising & styling for high end brands and also a degree in printed textiles. Sounds like a pretty amazing platform to start up a wonderful shop to me. So that’s what Nadia did, she saw a gap in the market for Irish designed baby clothes and when on Maternity leave in 2012 decided to start a collection of illustrations. In 2013 ‘Mooblesandtoobles’ was born. Nadias vision was to create a neutral fresh design using the art of screen printing.

In 2014 ‘MooblesandToobles’ launched an organic range using 100% organic cotton that is completely safe for babies with the use of fully Eco friendly inks. This store has grown and grown and now has such a beautiful range of products that are all too die for.

In Charlie’s corner I have their Fantastic wall prints and one of the organic cotton printed baby blankets. This shop really is wonderful and is a must to go and visit. http://www.mooblesandtoobles.com My second shop feature is about the very modern, handmade shop ‘Woodyandflorence’.

The shop is owned buy a lovely lady called Chloe who is expecting her first bundle of joy at the end of Feb. This gorgeous quote from her blog sums up her vision in one sentence, ‘ A modern take on life with a beautiful vintage twist’ ‘Woodyandflorence’ was created just for the simple reason that Chloe wanted to make stuff….. She loves DIY and drives her other half insane getting him to make random things. She wanted to create things that we’re fashionable but affordable, so when she inherited her lovely Nans sewing machine she got to work. Chloe loves designing new contemporary items and loves hearing positive feedback and understanding what makes people tick! Featured in Charlie’s corner are her beautiful Moses basket sheets! I literally looked every were for modern sheets but could only find the classic baby boy patterns or just plain white.

So when I saw these on a post on instagram I was stupidly excited.They are hand painted and are beautiful quality! I can’t wait for Charlie to sleep on them! Florence also sent me a few great little postcards that are items on her shop too. The LETS DO THIS one is going to be coming with me when I go into hospital I think!!

The third and last shop I’m going to Feature is the truly gorgeous ‘flamingobabyorganics’

It is owned by Megan, a lovely mummy of 1, Avery 10 months old. ( how beautiful is the name Avery!! ) Her shop was inspired and created when little Avery was 4 months old and she wanted fun goodies for her, and thought instead of buying them why not make them as she had the skills to do so! Megan started off with sewing a few blankets which then grew into a lovely variety of gorgeous baby goodies ranging from cushions to hand stamped cotton muslins, which are now a top seller. I’ve got to say the muslin blankets are too die for!! I haven’t purchased one yet but I will definitely be getting one when Charlie arrives! These too have too be my personal favourites but Megan has a full variety of patterns and even makes custom made orders.

The beauty of Her shop is that Megan makes everything herself from the stitching, stamping and all the new creative ideas. Flamingobaby has a lot of great new ideas in the pipe line, such as up cycled pants and mummy and me goodies! Featured in Charlie’s room is their fab cloud triangle stamped cushion! It really is one of my favourite pieces in his little corner as it just ties everything together.

Raindrop Blanket, Bear Print Blanket, Triangle Cushion Cover, – Frankbeardesigns, this is my little online store and I am currently closed but am taking pre orders for any of my products. Please email frank.bear@icloud.com if you are interested in pre ordering any items.

So mummy’s and daddy’s if you haven’t started creating your little ones space yet, you have no excuse as all these beautiful stores are just one click away. I hope this feature has inspired you, and helped you know that you don’t have to have a big empty room to make you feel ready for your little ones arrival. Thank you for reading. Please comment if you want to know any more information or have any questions.

Walking into a quiet waiting room and saying out loud ‘ I got washing detergent in my eye ‘ was possibly the most embarrassing thing I’ve had to do in a while.

After finishing writing my blog yesterday having a trip to the eye A&E department was NOT on my list to do! I was having such a productive day and finally getting on top of all my washing. I went to put my second wash in and had to open a new bottle of washing luquid, there was a little plastic pull back bit to open the little hole and when I pulled it back a massive blob of it flew and landed straight in the corner of my eye!!! REALLY, SERIOUSLY why did that have to happen. Continue reading →

3rd of February 3pm I will be walking into the hospital to have my little man.

We went in yesterday morning and it all went surprisingly smoothly… We had the scan and saw our little guys face for the first time as all the other times he’s been naughty and hidden it! I was hoping he would look more like me this time around but that has been confirmed already that it won’t be happening…. He has Toms nose and a bum chin.. definitely his daddy’s boy!
My doctor wanted him to be healthy enough to come out so when he measured him and found out he was nearly 7 pounds already he said yep lets get this day booked in! If I went to full term he would be 9 pound + , how have I made such a massive baby???
So the inducing is decided on… Continue reading →